Was Hitler a Totalitarian Dictator?

Hitler had eliminated the communists but had many other party oppositions. The KPD and the SPD were both banned by Hitler and soon other parties which helped Hitler to become Chancellor wee also banned. The trade unions were very closely associated with the left wing parties and so natural opponents of the Nazis. In May all trade unions were abolished and strikes were made illegal.

This very similar to what happened to the church it opposed Hitler and was banned. When the Nazis came into power in 1933 Germans were Christians they belonged to one of the two churches. They belonged to the catholic or the protestant church.

In 1933 Hitler signed a concordant with the pope. This agreement said that the Catholic Church would be left alone by the Nazis provided the church stayed out of politics. The Catholic Church soon discovered that they could not trust the Nazis. The Catholic Church had a large youth organization which was in direct competition with the Hitler youth. Many catholic parents preferred to send their children to the Catholic youth. Hitler noticed this and made the catholic youth illegal.

The severity and dedication of members or groups of Hitler Youth varied somewhat, depending upon the area or part of Germany involved. This was because of the different feelings and ideas of the adult leadership. The stricter or meaner the leaders were, the worse the Hitler Youth group thought and behaved. It was very much a "follow the leader" type organization, which was typical, at that time, of German behavior. In general, the very name of the organization will tell you that they existed in order to follow Hitler, and to carry out his ideas and commands. It was a very structured organization, with orders originating at the top

in Berlin. Local youth groups carried out those commands and, in many cases, behaved even more drastically in order to show how good and dedicated to Hitler's cause they were.

Like many dictators, Hitler and his immediate cohorts believed that it was vital to convert young children to their cause and believes. Basically that theory still holds true today. If you can capture the minds of young children and persuade them to become dedicated to your cause, your theory of the truth and your theory of what is right and wrong, then you can hold the whole country captive and you have complete control. That is what the Nazis were after in establishing the Hitler Youth.

All of this is proves that Hitler manipulated the law to his own rise and power. The Nazi party had established a dictatorship in Germany, all opposition parties had been banned and Hitler had given himself the title of the Fuhrer.

Yet once Hitler had successfully established a dictatorship he was not satisfied. He wanted a total dictatorship and that he should face no opposition. For those that he thought could not follow the Nazi way he used violence very effectively to eliminate all opposition. Hitler used terror and violence throughout his campaign. One of his many instruments of terror was the SA. The SA had long been the face of the Nazis. They were about two million of these brown shirts in 1934, this group held large meetings and demonstrations. The leaders of the SA demanded that the SA should take over the army. The SS was a part of the SA but the SS were Hitler's personal body guards. However this caused friction between the two.

Hitler believed the SA were getting too big for their boots. On the 30th June 1934 Hitler had the SA leaders arrested and shot in Munich. These events have become known as 'The Night of the Long Knives'. Hitler used this to win loyalty from the army. The SA were a bunch of untrained thugs whereas the soldiers in the army were trained killing machines. With the leaders of the SA killed, Hitler could put the SA into the army and train them. Now Hitler had a solid power base to 'police Germany' also there was no opposition to oppose him. Thus The Night of the Long Knives was important for two reasons. Hitler rid himself of the potential threat of the SA and also won the absolute loyalty of the army. It is clear evidence that Hitler was prepared to be absolutely ruthless in his drive to set up a total dictatorship.

Hitler had many ways of dealing with the opposition one of these ways was the concentration camps. Concentration camps were prisons set up for enemies of Hitler. The first was at Dchau, and was opened in 1933 they were supposedly to 'correct' opponents so that they stopped opposing the Nazis but this was very untrue, they were places of extreme torture. The camps were very effective for eliminating and exterminating opponents of the Nazis.

An example this was Kristallnacht, in 1938 a German diplomat was shot dead by Hershal grynszpan. Hershal heard that 17,000 Jews, including his own family had been deported from Germany but left stranded on the border between Poland and Germany. The German response was to launch an attack on Jews and Jewish property. This became known as Kristallnacht. 7500 Jewish businesses were destroyed and over 30 000 Jews were sent to concentration camps.

Once Hitler was in power he appointed Goebbles as Reich Minister of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. This meant Goebbels controlled the press, radio, publishing, films and arts. Propaganda within Nazi Germany was highly effective. The Nazi's realized the importance of the Radio and newspapers as a means to communicate with the masses. They were also highly aware of the force that these media had and the level of influence that they had over the population. Carefully planned radio broadcasts, rallies and films were used to convince the public that Hitler and the party had the overwhelming support of the masses. The news was engineered to show successes brought about by the parties policies and techniques such as subliminal messaging were used to 'brainwash' the masses into a state of belief and hysteria. In effect all news, rumors and opinions within the state were produced or influenced by the Government, a classic sign of a totalitarian leader exerting his control.

The way Hitler was presented to the German people was an important part of the Hitler myth. Pictures of Hitler showed him as a hero. Unlike previous leaders Hitler seemed to deliver what he promised this made him very popular. The fact that Hitler was not married was used to help to build the myth. Here was a man that gave up personal happiness in the service for his country, however Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun, was kept hidden from the people.

Hitler and Goebbels realized that they could promote the Hitler myth through mass marches. Image was vital. People would believe that Hitler was making Germany great if they could see it. Goebbels organized huge marches and rallies throughout Germany at which the SA could show off. Every year a party rally was held a Nuremburg. The sheer size and spectacle shocked and gave the audience an image of greatness. Perhaps the best rally was at the Berlin Olympics of 1936. A new stadium was built with film cameras to record the events and photo-electric timing instead of stop watches. Germany was presented as the most advanced nation.

To make the nations look advanced in every form the Nazis set up youth organizations to control the life of the young people outside school as well. Boys could join at the age of 14 or before that it's younger section the German young people. One rule was that membership was compulsory.

I Hitler was a very good example of what a totalitarian dictator was. People did not question decisions, no matter how absurd they appeared to be. It was evident that working against the party, or even being perceived as a potential threat would lead to prison or worse (the Night of the Long Knives for example). Through careful coercion, manipulation and misleading information the authorities could, and did, do as they pleased as the people either knew nothing about actions being taken or were too afraid to speak out about them. I have concluded from the information that Hitler was an extreme example of what a Totalitarian Dictator is.